Whew!

It's been a hectic few weeks. I finished up round three at Inside the Writer's Studio, and began round four today. I am never, ever again going to try to do the 30:30 challenge and NaNoWriMo at the same time. I thought I'd never see daylight again! I finished the NaNoWriMo challenge of 50,000 words while writing a poem a day at ITWS, but by the time November 3o arrived, I was feeling junkyard-dog vicious. If a Salvation Army Santa had said so much as"Merry Christmas" to me, I probably would have poured my latte on his beard. I drank a lot of lattes during November. I kept asking my husband if they were making my behind fat. He said not, but we've been married twenty years, so he is well-trained.


If I had even two paranoid bones in my body, I'd swear the gods were timing things to test my reserves. My fiction manuscript was returned to me for some re-writing and proof-reading at the same time my poetry manuscript proofs arrived. Today, I received an acceptance for an erotica anthology, but was asked to rewrite one small section of one story (yes, I do go over the top once in awhile). All these things need to be finished at about the same time. Yikes! Will I make it? Somebody needs to sing the "I think I can...I think I can...." refrain.


For all my complainin', I love writing and enjoy being busy with projects that are coming to completion after hours of elbow grease, head-thumping, and chewing the end of my pen.


I must also add that I'm eternally grateful for the work my editor (Chuck Adams) and copyeditor (Janet Patterson) have done on my novel, Tomato Girl. Mayapple's Judith Kerman (publisher/editor) and her assistant, Amee Schmidt, have been invaluable in making Forms of Intercession (Poetry) the best that it can be.


Arlene missed her plane to the Phillipines, but that gave her time to drop her chapbook in the mail to me. What she doesn't know is that if she had mailed my copy before her first attempt to leave, she wouldn't have missed her plane at all. I want that chapbook in my little hands.


And some good news... I heard from the UK based journal FuseLit. They've accepted my poem, "Fox in Daylight," for their sepcial issue on foxes. I can't wait to see it!